Yes, but those things didn't effect the population at large to the degree of the Iran-Iraq war and everything that happened after. I just find the visuals of what the Middle East was like at that point to be fascinating. Especially the marshes before Saddam created a fucking environmental disaster.

Surprised people aren't looking back fondly on Saddam's Iraq at this point, because in comparison to what's going on now...

Saddam was awesome compared to those IS jerks.

Yo Cena, just in case it doesn't make it out of the hopper, did you see the 100th episode? What did you think of it? I bet you loved all the parts with your mane ponies, Derpy and Whooves!

Good to hear from you Homer. You won't see too much of me here as I'm engaged in a lot of ship training shit. I just watched the 100th episode in a computer lounge on some Navy base, very discreetly as to hide my dark secret. Anywho, I hated the Derpy and Dr. Whooves shit. This is how fan pandering can ruin a show. I know this episode was all for the fans, but I still hate that dumb pony. She almost ruined the wedding with her incompetence and Dr. Who just plain sucks, so they shouldn't be using him. I did enjoy the Lyra/Bon Bon stuff. Its cool to see the writers make them best friends just like the fandom did.

Best of luck with the training! Shit sucks, but it'll end eventually.

I liked how they did the Lyra/BonBon stuff; t was remarkably PG-13, but I guess that's the point. I knew they were going to have Lyra and BonBOn in the episode, but didn't expect the lesbian angle to be that explicit. As for Depry and Whooves, you have to admit, it was cool how the art team paired them together, and all the references to Dr Who (the scarf, allons-y!) were nice. And obviously the Vinyl/ Octavia thing is going to be spawning a SHIT TON of memes and DA submissions. As will Existential Gummy.

They could have given the Spa Twins more speaking roles, and neither Apple Fritter nor Roxie were anywhere to be found... but I DID spot Boysenberry, and that made my night! Also, giving the Big Lebowski ponies significant speaking roles was an unexpected treat.

Did you notice Applejack lassoing the Bugbear? Also, that one photo during the WubMobile crash, right before Existential Gummy? In case you missed it

https://derpicdn.net/img/view/2015/6/13/915986.png

you still look like a retard to me.

"Extra-special" best friends. You saw the way they looked at each other. You heard the way they argued.

I hated how Applejack and Twilight's friendship was strained due to Applejack being a Sunni baath party loyalist and Twilight joining a Shia militia.

Is the magic of friendship strong enough to mend sectarian divides?

These are post Korea times. If a cartoon wants gay characters they can just say it. I don't see how you can interpret lovers from best friends.
I liked the episode, but they didn't need to go 100% fan wank. The Octavia Vinyl dubmobile was a bit too much like something that would happen in a fan video.

>> If a cartoon wants gay characters they can just say it.

Can they? Can they *really*? What about Steven Magnet? Steven Magnet is clearly gay, too, yet at no point is this fact explicitly referenced in the dialogue. It's a subtle joke, one of those risque elements that, in classic animation tradition, got slid in there "just for the parents" (or the LyraBon shippers, in this case).

And hell yeah, the dubmobile was! That's what made it so awesome. The whole art design of the Vinyl Octavia scenes, with the sudden Photoshop light trails and everything, just screamed fanart. There was that one really fancy shot in particular, near the coda of their Classical vs Dubstep duel, just before they do the ninja-jump. I was like "Holy shit, fan work"! And that's nice; it's cool that they took the extra effort to make the Octavia Vinyl story something special.

And what about Race Bannon?

My mane point is that they could have made a more sincere episode about the background ponies without the fan wank.